In Germany

What did the War do to German universities ? Hear* P. Stepun (Russian) who studied 16 years ago at Heidelberg: Heidelberg in 1908. "In the days when I studied at Heidelberg the life of the town was governed in every detail by the University. It was not so much a University town as a town attached to a University. All the residents seemed to live there exclusively in order to rent rooms to the students, to feed them at the cafes and restaurants, to sell them books, to photograph them on foot and on horseback, singly and in groups, with courtplastered scars on their faces, or with dogs; to keep their daughters from flirting too outrageously with students and yet to be proud of such romances; to nudge each other when meeting a famous professor on the street, and to retail to each other bits of academic gossip. There was much that was petty in this life, much that smacked of the provincial, but also much that was friendly and noble--frank esteem for the 'Herr Professor,' veneration for intellectual, spiritual labor, respect and love for learning." Heidelberg today. "Students are nowhere to be seen. True, faded corporation-caps and banners are still pinned to the restaurant walls. But they are dead relics--withered blossoms in a spinster's chamber. Of course, Heidelberg is still full of young men who attend lectures at the University. But they are not 'students' in the old-time sense; they are no longer the pampered children of the town, who may do everything, to the everlasting enjoyment of everybody. They seem to wear magic caps that render them invisible. Russian students, in particular, have changed entirely. There are many of them; but they do not stroll in groups up and down the Anlage; they do not argue--all at the same time-- about socialization of land and proletarianization of the peasant; they no longer busy themselves despising every Corps student who passes them and whom they think more stupid than his own bulldog. Indeed the Corps student also has suffered a mysterious eclipse. . . ." "Before the War scientific rationalism was the leading force of Germany, and strictly rationalistic philosophy held undisputed sway in every German university. Today this school of thinking fares badly indeed in Heidelberg. A whole army of new men of widely varying intellectual ability has taken up arms against it. A very interesting teacher, quite new in university circles, and a brilliant speaker, now wields enormous influence. He is Professor Gundolf, the author of the best, indeed the first real book on Goethe; a fanatical supporter of personality as the determining factor in life and history. He opposes vigorously the abstract rationalism of the academic philosophy formerly taught at Heidelberg. The next in popularity is Professor Jaspers. College ethics prevent him from opposing too openly the Heidelberg tradition, but his philosophic system does so for him: it is based on psychology and a peculiar variety of metaphysics." Hear-- Christian Herrmann on German universities in general: In 1914."Shortly before the war the disassociation between the university and the people reached a point where the former completely lost contact with the nation's spiritual life. The faculties were hypnotized by research, and carefully abstained from generalizing or taking definite positions toward the problems of the day. They dealt with the past with an air of cold detachment. No historian discussed the period subsequent to 1870. No critic occupied himself with contemporary art and literature. Naturally, therefore, university teachers paid no attention to politics and public affairs. Even if their devotion to scientific research had left them leisure for such topics, their objective habit of thought would have effectually prevented their taking an interest in them." Today. "Since the war, however, a notable change has occurred. Today several very prominent professors are taking an active part in public life. Professor Radbrueck, the Kiel jurist, who is a member of the Socialist Party, was until recently Minister of Justice; Professor Troeltsch, who teaches philosophy at Berlin, and Professor Becker, the Orientalist, have both been active, in various official capacities, in educational reform. Professor Hellpach of Carlsruhe, the psychologist, has been Minister of Public Instruction. Many others are members of the Reichstag. Political interest is even livelier among the younger members of the teaching corps, who have less confirmed habits of mind and scholastic traditions. University men in politics are divided among all the groups from the extreme Left to the extreme Right, but most of them are Moderates. However, many of the younger faculty members show strong sympathies with the Left. "Coincident with this awakened interest in public affairs has been the appearance of courses dealing with recent and contemporary history. In most cases these are conducted in a scientific and impartial spirit. Great tolerance is shown for political views not held by the professor in charge. These courses are a symptom that the university must occupy itself scientifically with the political, economic, and social problems of the day. That idea is responsible for the recent establishment at Berlin of a Hochschule fur Politik, distinct from the university itself, but with its faculty drawn for the most part from the latter's teaching body.

"This brings us to the important question of the attitude of the students toward the new courses. About 70% of them are known to have Conservative leanings. The reason for this is primarily social. The classes that formerly were well-to-do, and that still supply a majority of the matriculants, have been impoverished by the war and its results. Their members attribute this impoverishment to the new regime. This is a mistaken idea, for which the lack of previous political training is largely responsible, and one the new instruction is likely to correct. In any case, the courses are popular with the students, and are already having an appreciable effect upon the political sentiment of the student body."

'Writing in Dni, Berlin Russian-language journal. "Writing in La Revue de Geneve, Swiss monthly.